The fair gets underway, and the communities are reconnecting, but something is lurking that threatens the day.
Actor Allusion: When he’s going to be dunked by Judith, Eugene playfully taunts her saying he’s seen better arms on a spiral galaxy. Cailey Fleming got her start playing young Rey in a galaxy far, far away.
Adaptational Early Appearance: Alpha killing a Whisperer for witnessing her crying happened in a later time in the comics.
All Love Is Unrequited: Addy dies mere hours after she learns that her chances with Henry are nonexistent. On the other hand, they end up Together in Death.
Badass in Distress: The Whisperers manage to capture and kill several combat proficient survivors before leaving a bloodied and beaten Siddiq tied to a tree. They also have Daryl, Carol, Michonne, and Yumiko at their mercy for half the episode.
Bad Boss: Alpha slaughters a Whisperer who caught her crying over Lydia.
Big Damn Heroes: Subverted. Ozzy, DJ, and Alek arrive to give the captured survivors a chance to fight their way out of their confinement, but they all ultimately fail and are massacred by Alpha with only Siddiq surviving.
Before the opening credits start, Hilde made a bunch of engraved "H"s on wood for the fair and after getting ambushed by Alpha, the last shot before the credits focuses on the "H" wood on the ground. At the end of the episode, Lydia leaves a necklace of the "H" at the pike where Henry's head was at and the camera focuses on "H" again.
Tara realized ex-Big Bad The Governor was bad news after witnessing him decapitate Hershel. Here, she meets that very same fate at the hands of current Big Bad Alpha.
All the way back to "The Well". Henry's first line in the show was reminding his older brother, Benjamin, that it was movie night. This episode has Henry about to watch the film that the Kingdom found, only to never get the opportunity due to his untimely death by head on a pike.
Bury Your Gays: The episode features the death of the show's original LGBT main character, though Aaron and the recently introduced Magna and Yumiko still being alive (somewhat) mitigate this.
The Bus Came Back: Rachel returns for the first time since “The Obliged”, in the process making this the first appearance of an Oceanside member since the second Time Skip.
At last, the leaders of the communities sign the charter that Michonne was drafting before Rick’s disappearance.
Addy admits to Henry that she ratted him and Lydia out in “Bounty”.
Luke and Alden discussed performing at the fair in “Adaptation”.
Daryl comforting Carol after Henry's death is reminiscent of him doing the same after Sophia's death in Season 2.
Character Death: Alpha slaughters Ozzy, his lieutenant Alek, DJ, Frankie, Addy, Rodney, Tammy, Enid, Tara, and Henry and mounts their heads on the pikes marking her border.
In his speech, Ezekiel references how Jesus was the key to the union of the communities by way of meeting Alexandria in Season 6’s “The Next World”.
Siddiq is especially moved when Ezekiel honors Carl, who died bringing him into Alexandria in Season 8.
Michonne mentions her arrival at the prison in Season 3’s “Hounded”, and Tara’s presence amongst The Governor’s militia in Season 4’s “Too Far Gone”.
Rachel mentions how she wanted to kill Tara when she first found her on Oceanside’s beach in Season 7’s “Swear”.
Cruel Twist Ending: An episode of mostly lighthearted, heartwarming fun at the Fair is ruined by Alpha’s beheadings of Henry, Tara, Enid, and several others, and threatening the communities with a massive herd of walkers.
Death by Adaptation: Happens again, in a way, with Carl. Though Carl himself died in Season 8, Henry has been filling his role as the young teen boy protagonist, only to perish in this episode.
Enid gets to officially call Alden her boyfriend just before her death.
Tara gets to solidify herself as a sovereign leader of the communities.
Addy and Rodney get some screentime, fruitlessly pining for Henry and bullying Lydia respectively.
Ozzy gets a little time to show he’s a dedicated ally of the Kingdom.
Decapitation Presentation: Alpha kills ten people from the communities and had their heads put on pikes to both mark her territory and intimidate the communities.
Do Not Go Gentle: The victims of the pike massacre don't make it easy for the Whisperers to have their way, and go out fighting.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Alpha’s twisted relationship with her daughter continues to show itself. She seemingly is willing to join the communities just to be with Lydia, and later entrusts Daryl to her, hoping that he can protect her.
Even Evil Has Standards: Beta seems taken aback by Alpha abandoning her daughter, calling her weak, and saying she was never one of them.
Forced to Watch: Siddiq is all but said to have been forced to watch the ten pike victims be slaughtered so that he could tell the tale.
Fun with Acronyms: A stealth and twisted example. If you arranged initials from ten victims in certain order, you will get: Addy, Rodney, Tammy, Ozzy, Frankie, DJ, Enid, Alek, Tara, Henry. Aka "ART OF DEATH".
Green-Eyed Monster: With Addy’s fumbling apology for ratting out Henry and Lydia in “Bounty”, you can’t help but wonder if part of it was her secretly wishing to get Lydia out of the picture to get Henry for herself.
Heroic BSoD: Having lost yet another child, Carol just breaks down.
Last Stand: Siddiq reveals that the pike victims made a desperate, last fight for their survival against the Whisperers before Alpha arrived with even more Whisperers and murdered them.
Make an Example of Them: Alpha does this on a colossal scale, using ten victims to mark her territory.
Mama Bear: When making their Last Stand, Tammy Rose grabs a shovel and uses it to protect the kids that Alpha had captured.
Michonne and Ezekiel’s somewhat touchy reunion may just be a nod to how in the comics, they got together.
While he's ultimately Spared by the Adaptation, Ezekiel's death has been teased a few times in the episode. First when he meets a disguised Alpha in the fair. Then just before The Reveal of the final head on the pike, the scene cuts to him, alluding to the fact that, in the comics, he was the final head revealed.
Addy's head still has her glasses, invoking Olivia's appearance. Olivia was one of the decapitated survivors in the comics but suffered a Death by Adaptation in Season 7.
Not Quite Dead: Daryl learns of Beta’s survival when he approaches them in the woods.
"Not So Different" Remark: Tara is unwilling to bring in Lydia, but Michonne points out that in the beginning, neither of them were trusted by Rick’s group when they arrived.
Oh, Crap!: Ezekiel completely panics when Lydia tells him that Alpha was at the fair and she (Lydia) can't find Henry.
Outliving One's Offspring: Carol and Ezekiel have lost Henry. He wasn't blood, but he was their son all the same, and Carol's reaction is devastating.
Red Herring: Many potential deaths are teased for viewers who have read the comics and know what’s coming.
Ezekiel and Rosita are especially notable examples of characters being set up to die, only to turn out to be perfectly fine. In the second-last flashback that was interspersed throughout the pike reveals, Gabriel asks Eugene that he would like to speak with "her", seemingly confirming Rosita's fate, before showing us that Tara was who he was referring to, via her decapitated head on a pike.
Magna decides to head back to Hilltop alone a bit later than the others, and has a tender moment with her girlfriend. Alpha later says she ‘ran into some trouble on the road’ while cleaning her knife. Magna turns out not to be one of Alpha’s victims. In fact, the only reason she probably lived is because she didn’t initially go back with Ozzy’s group. As a bonus, we see Yumiko's panicked reaction before the first head on pike is shown, initially leading viewers to believe that her girlfriend was the first victim.
Senseless Sacrifice: Ozzy, Alek, and DJ tried to save the hostages from the Whisperers, but just ended up getting captured and put on the chopping block themselves when Alpha shows up.
She Cleans Up Nicely: A twisted example. Alpha cleans herself up to disguise as an Alexandrian attending the Fair.
She's All Grown Up: Rachel, who is now portrayed by Avianna Mynhier due to the 6 years time skip.
Snow Means Death: Snow starts falling during the final scene, with the upcoming Season Finale teasing a showdown with the Whisperers.
Sole Survivor: Out of the group held hostage by the Whisperers, only Siddiq made it out alive albeit bloodied, injured and in grief.
Spare a Messenger: Alpha spares Siddiq from death solely so that he can carry word of the massacre back to the allied communities.
Spared by the Adaptation: In the comics, Ezekiel, Rosita, Amber, and Luke were casualties of the Whisperer border, but they survive in the TV version.
A Storm Is Coming: In the literal sense, the episode ends with the arrival of the harsh winter. In the figurative one, the Whisperers' stint is clearly not forgotten by the community alliance.
The Fair is basically one big version of this trope, since it’s all about the communities celebrating their reunion and promising to be there for each other going forward, only for their optimism to be repaid with a dozen of their own dead.
On individual character notes, we have:
Enid and Alden just barely made themselves an Official Couple;
Ozzy continued to be excited for a movie;
Tammy was excited to name her new baby; and
Addy just had her hopes for romance with Henry rekindled, then dashed.
The couple in the opening who wish each other a happy anniversary multiple times don't even make it past the opening.
Both the Hilltop and Alexandria manage to get their medics captured by the Whisperers; it's only by sheer dumb luck that Siddiq escapes with his life, while Enid dies with the other victims of the massacre.
Truer to the Text: Tammy Rose is the only one of the pike victims to suffer the same fate in the source material.
We Hardly Knew Ye: Ozzy and Alek return for their second appearance only to be dead by the end of the episode, with little other development to their names. DJ, one of the few Saviors who became a loyal Alexandrian, also dies without anything else to him.
Wham Episode: Alpha deals a horrific blow to the newly reunited communities, massacring a dozen people, one of them the leader of Hilltop. We also learn that Alpha has a massive horde even bigger than the quarry herd from Season 6 at her disposal.
Wham Line: When nine out of the ten heads on pikes are revealed, the last one isn't shown until a flashback at the Kingdom's fair confirms its identity.
Alpha showing Daryl her massive herd at her command.
The Reveal shot of the pikes, especially the establishing shots of Enid, Tara, and Henry’s heads.
After Lydia places Henry's necklace below one of the empty pikes, and leaves with Daryl, snow begins to fall. This is significant because it will be the first time the show has winter as its setting.
Lydia running to talk to Ezekiel, showing he is alive and well after his earlier, unwitting encounter with Alpha and displaying to the viewer that he’s not the final victim like the comics...
You Will Be Spared: Alpha pulls this with Siddiq, the only person she has at her mercy whom she allows to live — to, of course, tell their friends, neighbors, and family what happened here.
